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World Bank to Nigerians: It’s no conspiracy! *You need years of pains to survive

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Despite acknowledging the massive poverty in the country, with over 129 million affected, mostly traced to the current reforms under its recommendations, the World Bank is insisting that Nigerians must continue putting up with the situation and never think of reversing the ongoing policies of President Bola Tinubu.

Two key policies – removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol Tinubu announced during his inauguration on May 29, 2023 and floating of the local currency, the naira, which followed some weeks after, had plunged the citizenry into the type of hardship never witnessed in the history of the country due to the soaring cost of living.

But regardless, the Bretton Wood institution, is insisting that the policies must be sustained for years to come despite protestations in many quarters that the only visible result is more poverty in the land, adding that any reversal would take the country back to the starting point.

In a report released by the Bank on Thursday, detailing its findings and position, christened: Nigeria Development Update Report, which stated that over 129 million Nigerians are currently trapped in poverty, it also referred to the headline inflation that has forced millions into hunger.

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“With growth proving too slow to outpace inflation, poverty has risen sharply. Since 2018, the share of Nigerians living below the national poverty line16 is estimated to have risen sharply from 40.1 per cent to 56.0 per cent. Combined with population growth, this means that some 129 million Nigerians are living in poverty. This stark increase partly reflects Nigeria’s beleaguered growth record. Real GDP per capita has not recovered to the level it was at prior to the oil price-induced recession in 2016,” the document, read.

It added: “The COVID-19 pandemic compounded this drop in economic activity. Moreover, growth is failing to outpace inflation: large increases in prices across almost all goods have diminished purchasing power.

“Multiple shocks in a context of high economic insecurity have deepened and broadened poverty, with over 115 million Nigerians estimated to have been poor in 2023. Since 2018/19, an additional nearly 35 million people have fallen into poverty, so that more than half of Nigerians (51.1 per cent of the population in 2023) are now estimated to live in poverty.”

The report also acknowledged the increase in the poverty index from 115 million in 2023 to 129 million in 2024, meaning that 14 million Nigerians have become poorer this year, which it attributed to the surge to inflation, poor economic management, and external shocks.

It said: “Several shocks have contributed to this major increase and changing profile of the poor: the COVID-19 recession, natural disasters such as flooding, growing insecurity, the high cost of the demonetization policy in Q1 2023, high inflation, and low economic growth.

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“Previous domestic policy missteps compounded the effects of the shocks, particularly rising inflation, eroding the purchasing power, especially of urban households, pushing many into poverty. The government is ramping up the cash transfer programs to support economically insecure households to help weather the crisis.”

Revealing that while poverty remained a rural phenomenon, urban poverty had grown significantly, with 31.3 per cent of urban dwellers now living in poverty, up from 18 per cent in 2018, the report, added: “Being employed, however, is no guarantee of being able to escape poverty.

“Many jobs are not productive and therefore remunerative enough to afford a life beyond poverty. Jobs hold the key to sharing the proceeds of growth. Since Nigeria has a young and growing population, the jobs that can harness the country’s potential ‘demographic dividend’ are needed now.”

Alex Sienaert, now Lead Economist for Nigeria, while weighing in on the report, dismissed claims that the institution seeks to keep Nigeria economically dependent, saying: “I’m in this position of having been the lead economist at the World Bank here in Nigeria on economic policy issues for two years now, and I just want to tell you that I’ve not seen any conspiracy within the World Bank or otherwise to keep Nigeria down.”

He pointed out that Nigeria’s fiscal deficit had shrunk from 6.2 per cent of GDP in 2022 to 4.4 per cent in the first half of 2023, thanks to reforms such as the removal of FX and fuel subsidies.

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Ndiame Diop, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, who urged the Federal Government to sustain its reforms, warning that reversing them would be disastrous, stated: “Reversing these reforms would be detrimental and would spell doom for Nigeria.”

Stressing that the reforms were difficult but essential to stabilise the economy, he noted that the World Bank was willing to offer Nigeria more loans as well as technical assistance in support of ongoing reforms, adding: “Yes, we do have in the pipeline for this fiscal year several projects financed by the World Bank. These are government projects, implemented mostly by the states.

“Nigeria is a very important partner for the World Bank. We have been providing technical support, but also financing. But what is really important is that our financing comes with technical support and implementation support, and really making sure things go according to plan.”

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BREAKING: Death penalty for fake drugs! *NAFDAC to push new law at NASS

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Those peddling fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria should be ready for the hangman’s noose, if the thinking of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), becomes the new law.

Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the body, who said on Friday that no other form of punishment is fitting enough, gave instances of where the application of such dangerous substances in form of health drugs, had led to fatalities.

Advocating that only stiff penalties would deter peddlers especially when deaths of children became involved, the NAFDAC boss, who appeared as a guest on The Morning Brief, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said: “Somebody bought children’s medicine for N13,000 or something like that, another person was selling about N3,000 in the same mall. 

“That raised an alarm. Guess what? There was nothing inside that medicine when we tested it in our Kaduna lab. So, I want the death penalty. Because you don’t need to put a gun on the head of a child before you kill that child. Just give that child bad medicine.”

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Advocating that the National Assembly and the judiciary to make the proposal a reality, adding that the agency was open to partnering with lawmakers and other stakeholders on the matter, she added: “You cannot fight substandard, falsified medicine in isolation. The agency can do as much as it can but if there is no deterrent, there’s going to be a problem.

“Somebody brought in 225mg of Tramadol that can kill anybody, fry the brain and you give a judgment of five years in prison or N250,000. Who doesn’t know that that person will go to the ATM and get N250,000? That is part of our problem.

“There are no strict measures to deter [people] from repeating the same thing. We can do as much as we can but if our law is not strong enough, or the judiciary is not strong enough to stand up, we’re going to have a problem.

“So, our judiciary system must be strong enough. But we are working with the National Assembly to make our penalties very stiff.  But if you kill a child by bad medicine, you deserve to die. We have a lot on our plate in stemming drug peddling.

“Withe about 2,000 staff members nationwide and limited funding, NAFDAC is constrained in carrying out its activities. So, when it comes to staffing, you’re right on the point. We are short-staffed and I am hoping things will be better.”

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Give us electoral offences tribunal to take care of heist – INEC  

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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, made a fresh push for the creation of an electoral offences tribunal, to curb the cases of attacks on the Nigerian democratic system.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, told reporters at the commission’s first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media that the tribunal had become important owing to the backlog of electoral offence cases.

He said: “A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals. Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed,” the INEC chief told the gathering.

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.”

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Bemoaning the delay in the justice delivery system, citing the conviction of a returning officer in Akwa Ibom after six years in court, the INEC boss, said: “The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point.

“The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.

“Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara, and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending.”

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Again, terrorists attack Sokoto, kidnap 10 worshippers at a mosque

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A mosque in Bushe community, Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, fell into the hands of bandits on Friday, after which 10 worshippers including the Imam were spirited away, adding to growing cases of terrorist attacks.

Channels Television reports that the gunmen invaded the mosque on Thursday while worshippers were performing their early morning Subhi prayer, quoting residents as saying that the gunmen had been molesting the people of the community for some time now, even with the presence of security agents.

Ahmed Rufai, spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, who confirmed the attack on Friday, said the police authorities were working with other security agencies to rescue the abducted victims.

A member of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, representing the Sabon Birni B state Constituency who also confirmed the attack, commended the security agencies for their timely intervention.

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